AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/27 Report--

According to foreign media reports, Ford will lay off about 20% of its European operations. Germany, the UK and Russia will be hardest hit by the layoffs, with about 12000 jobs and employees at companies in these regions, Ford officials said.

The restructuring, which is part of Ford's previously announced $11 billion restructuring plan, will involve reducing its manufacturing bases in Europe to 18 by the end of 2020, down from 24 at the beginning of the year.

Ford has been particularly hard hit in the UK because of the uncertainty of Britain's exit from the European Union. The European carmaker lobby says deliveries are likely to fall by 1% this year, highlighting the industry's woes. This is in sharp contrast to the previous forecast of 1 per cent growth.

Ford plans to achieve its goal of $25.5 billion in cost savings over the next five years. At the time, Ford said nearly half of the cuts would be spent on sales and marketing-through incentive optimisation, reduced advertising and other actions-and the rest would come from reducing engineering and product development, material costs and manufacturing and information technology spending.

In January, Ford announced a major overhaul of the European market, but did not specify the size of the layoffs at the time. As part of the reform, six factories, including Bridgend engine plant in South Wales, transmission plant in France and assembly plant in Russia, will be closed or sold by the end of next year.

Jim Hackett, Ford's chief executive, wrote in an email to employees that the job cuts would save Ford about $600m a year. Most of the layoffs in North America will be completed on May 24, while other markets, including Europe, China and South America, will be completed by the end of August.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat